39 pages • 1 hour read
Johnnie ChristmasSwim Team
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Puzzles
Puzzles symbolize characters’ problems and the ways in which they work through them. Like most novels, Swim Team introduces a conflict and describes how characters are able to work through that conflict, following a traditional structure consisting of rising action, a climax, and then its resolution. Puzzles follow a similar trajectory, as solvers encounter them, determine how best to solve them, and then do so, finishing with the satisfaction of having completed them. In the novel, puzzles operate on two levels. First, Bree and Etta both appreciate solving actual puzzles, which helps them connect. However, the larger conflicts of learning to swim, joining the team, and then working to emerge victorious in competition are puzzles for Bree to solve, too.
Early in the novel, Bree receives a new puzzle from her dad, which she gets to work on right away. This puzzle shows readers that Bree enjoys working through problems, but at that point, she is not yet aware that she can apply the same process in other ways in her life. However, as she learns to swim, she recognizes that conquering her fears is like solving a math problem or puzzle: taking it one step at a time. From her swim lessons with Etta, she realizes that she is “[l]earning a little more each time. Adding more pieces. It’s a process” (90). At the end of the novel, just before she goes to find the other members of Etta’s swim team, Bree solves the initial puzzle her father gave her, symbolizing that she is ready to solve her next ones: reuniting with her teammates and helping Etta reunite with hers.
Etta’s puzzles of choice are jigsaw puzzles of personal photographs, which she describes as “exciting.” Jigsaw puzzle pieces are a visual motif throughout the story, such as when Etta describes the history of access to swimming pools and Bree’s belief that Black people don’t know how to swim. Unlike Bree, Etta does not receive a clean solution to her puzzle, symbolizing her then unresolved rift with her friends. This is evident in Etta telling Bree that she did not retrieve all the pieces from the water when she rescued Bree, instead looking forward to “a new one to celebrate [her] new beginning” (105).
The Friendship Bracelet
Clara gives Bree a friendship bracelet early in the novel, and it solidifies their closeness, symbolizing the ties that bind them. From the first time that Bree’s expresses her fears and doubts, one of them is “You’ll never make new friends. EVEEERRRR” (8). The friendship bracelet therefore symbolizes Bree overcoming that fear, helping her understand that she isn’t alone and is able to adapt to new circumstances. Clara offers Bree the friendship bracelet after it is revealed that Bree doesn’t know how to swim. This is especially important since it is a moment in which Bree feels embarrassed and insecure. When Clara adds, “I don’t care if you can’t swim. You’re my friend” (48), Bree is overcome with gratitude and affection, hugging Clara. It is a critical moment of their friendship, as Bree feels welcomed and accepted, despite her fears and doubts. From that point onward, the friendship bracelet appears on Bree’s wrist, depicting Bree’s constant connection to Clara.
When Bree returns the friendship bracelet when she quits the team, she is at her lowest point, feeling alone and betrayed by her friends. She tries to cut the tie between herself and Clara by giving the bracelet back. Therefore, when she asks for it back, she is trying to knit her life together again as she recognizes that friendship is more important than teamwork. She explains to Clara, “I thought you’d leave and we wouldn’t be friends anymore” (213). Her statement emphasizes a deeper insecurity that still remains: Their friendship is contingent on being able to swim together. However, Clara is quick to reassure her that they’ll always be friends, and this time Bree accepts that Clara’s friendship is not contingent on anything.
Swim Sisters
“Swim sisters” refers to the relationship between one’s teammates that extends beyond their ability to compete together. Members of both Bree’s and Etta’s swim teams use it to describe themselves, and its use comes to symbolize how the girls on each team value each other beyond their ability to succeed in the competition. For much of the novel, Etta tries to emphasize to Bree the importance of being connected to her fellow swimmers, reminding her that swimming is “a real team effort. The best relay teams are in sync, in the pool and out” (125). They have to come together, and it takes every member of Bree’s swim team time to recognize what it means to be in sync. Bree is nervous about competing and struggles learning flip turns. Clara butts heads with Keisha. Phillipa has difficulty keeping up her speed and is insecure about being “the Anchor,” and Keisha feels that she is better than her teammates, acting rudely toward them. However, each of their weaknesses is resolved by becoming closer to one another, as when Bree stands up for Keisha in front of the Holyoke Prep students. In doing so, she helps Keisha understand that their relationship extends beyond the pool and that she will not judge Keisha for not performing perfectly in every competition. When all four girls reconcile at the end of the novel, they become unstoppable, acting in sync and winning the state championship.
Etta’s “swim sisters” emphasize the enduring bonds of friendship since their friendship extends to the time when they were in middle school together many decades prior. Throughout the novel, Etta seems forlorn, and Bree eventually realizes that Etta also needs her swimming family and works to reunite them. However, it is because Etta, Jamie, Yvette, and Mari were swim sisters that Mari’s actions hurt so much. By leaving Etta, Jamie, and Yvette outside the pool, Mari cut their bond as swim sisters. However, her admission that she “messed up” and that “[i]t’s been fifty years, but in [her] heart, [they’re] still a team and always will be” helps Etta to see that their bond as swim sisters can survive anything (210). When Bree’s team wins the championship, it feels like the four original swim sisters did too, as they all celebrate by cheering, “SWIM SISTERS” (237).
